Sketchcrawl 21 announced - Jan 10 2009

Yes the next Official worldwide crawl will be January 10th 2009
And the Melbourne sketchcrawl group will be running again, if you'd like to meet up with us keep checking here or the forum or facebook group for updates.

I'd love to hear some suggestions for where people would like to go? I was thinking Start at spring st and work our way down little bourke through china town?

We had a great turn out last time of about 25 people and we'd love to see you all again!

If you can help with getting posters up at local art shops let us know!

http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=3419
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36223981062

Some more pics from our participants!

Well the Weather for saturday is looking a touch average but we will soldier one because you just never know what melbourne will throw at you! there are sheltered spots at the Convent which will provide a place to hide if the rain hits. Anyway a trip to the dollar shop is always a good idea to find a poncho!
taccolina has shared her drawings from the day on her blog - click here.

Karen sent me some of her lovely photos via Tacolina (bev) which I will share with you here.

NOVEMBER EVENT

11am Saturday 8th November
Collingwood Children’s Farm Farmers Market & Abbotsford Convent
End of St Heliers St, Abbotsford. ( GOOGLE MAPS)

Meeting Point: End of St Helier’s St at the Large Wooden Gates too the farm

PLEASE NOTE: $2 fee to enter Farmers Market before 1pm - after 1pm normal farm entry fee of $8 applies
so get there early for cheap entry - pass outs available - Convent is free entry.

This will be a less structured day out, allowing time for the painters to set up where they wish and the
sketchers to roam around. Grab a picnic lunch or something from the bakery at the convent.

GETTING THERE: VIA CAR - We are located at the end of St. Heliers St, Abbotsford.
The easiest way to get here is to go via Johnston St then onto Clarke St. (See MELWAYS Ref 44 G5)
VIA TRAIN - Catch the Epping or Hurstbridge line train and get off at Victoria Park train station.
Then it’s a 5-10 minute walk east along Johnston St.
VIA BUS - Catch the Garden City/Bulleen Bus 200, 201 and 207 which leave from the City in Lonsdale St,
and runs along Johnston St. Get off at Clarke St.
(Just ask the driver if they are going in the Kew Junction direction).

For more info email Janice janice.hook@gmail.com or call 0404 240 602 (if you sms please sign your messages)

Results & Next Crawl

What a great day! we had about 25 people show up for the day and we sketched, wrote and photographed to hearts content! Some of us ended up at a pub by the river exchanging opinions on art supplies (Andrea I think I have your pen!)

I'll post links to everyone's results as they become available but here's a start...

Sketchcrawl Forum - Melbourne results

http://taccolina.blogspot.com/

NEXT EVENT: begins at 11am Saturday 8th November 2009 Collingwood Childrens Farm - Farmers Market

PLEASE NOTE There is a 2 dollar entry to the farm collected by rotary on the day.

http://www.farm.org.au/coming-events/farmers-market.html

Meetup place and further details closer to the event

And a mailing list...

One last thing before we set off tomorrow, I've created a mailing list for those who like to stay in touch that way - it's a google group so conversation is able to be had rather than an announcement only mailing list.
I would encourage people to join especially if they are interested in the community aspect of the sketchrawl.

I know some of you are aware of my hope to extend this group beyound quarterly crawls and into a more regular drawing group. This is one way i hope to acheive this.

Group name: SketchCrawl Melbourne
* Group home page: http://groups.google.com.au/group/sketchcrawl-melbourne
* Group email address sketchcrawl-melbourne@googlegroups.com

Again - see you tomorrow - 10am outside the state library corner swanston and la traboe sts.

Itinerary!

Ok here is the proposed meet up points and approximate times.

I have adjusted this from the original a little just because of the expected temperature on Saturday.

Of course you don't need to stick to this! create your own route and let us know what you see!

Beginning at ...
10am - State Library of Victoria
(Cnr Swanston & Latrobe sts)
Look out for Architecture, Ned Kelly, Statues, Trams, People!

then perhaps some lunch at ...
12noon - Victoria Markets (Cnr Elisabeth & Victoria Sts)
Look out for Food, Buskers, Spruikers, Animals.

need a change of scene? onto...
1.30pm - Bourke St Mall (Cnr Bourke & Elisabeth)
Look out for Buskers, Shoppers, Trams, Architecture.

And then wander though some of Melbourne’s laneways...
Maybe grab a coffee or check out the zines at Sticky in the Degraves St subway before making your way to...

2.30pm - Federation Square
Get cool at the NGV, Look out for that big train station and the large public space across the road, rowers on the yarra,

And then the strong of constitution may continue onto Southbank or Chinatown to round out your day!

If you get lost and want to re-group call Janice on 0404 240 602

Non-sketching Sketchers

Inspired by Tina-m i have been inviting non-sketching sketchers on the crawl to explore the other artistic aspects of the word sketch.
I've been encouraging people to explore the non drawing aspects of the word; so we are inviting poets, prosesters, photographers and videographers to join us in documenting the day in melbourne.
I have already heard from one writer who will be joining us and would like to have a chat with a few of you about her long essay on Melbourne.
Also there will be a few zinesters who are not frantically getting ready for the hawthorn fair who may join us.
Can't wait to see you there!

Susan Wald at Ochre Gallery

Hello Sketchcrawlers!
Just a very quick update. I have just walked in the door from meeting Helen and Michael at Ochre Gallery, their current exhibition is the Figure work of Susan Wald.

Why I'm telling you you must go see it is twofold; 1. the exhibtiion is easily two thirds sketches and 2. they have two of Susan's sketchbooks on display which you may respectfully flick through.

So get up, get out, and see some art this weekend!

Ochre gallery is open 11-5 on weekends and is easily accessed by catching the 109 tram from the city and getting off at wellington st/tribeca.

Please Visit their website for more details http://www.ochregallery.com/

(I would have an image but there seems to be none about on the web- take my word for it and go!)

My kits.

Here are the two kits I use on a day to day basis;
The very basic kit;
Sketchbook: in this case a small moleskine
Waterbrush
Staedtler pigment liner 0.05
and a pallete made from scribbling my caran d'ache water soluble crayons onto some sheer heaven.



And the more comprehensive kit, I will most likely have this type of setup with me on the crawl.

Containing:
Sketchbook: one I made myself shown here
Travel paint kit: gouache pans in a vintage tobacco tin
Pens: in my fantastic stand up pencil case I carry a variety of drawing implements and water brushes.

I'm a little obsessed with Sketch kits and drawing implements, for details of my obsession visit my personal blog or my flickr

The Creativity kit.

Well I've heard from a wonderfully diverse group of people who hope to join us on our crawl, writers, photographers, journallers and artists all of whom will seek to capture something unique about the day.

I thought I'd write to you today about the Things one might bring with you on a sketchcrawl. As i am an artist of the visual persuasion I'll focus on those tools but I'm sure Writers and photographers have their own creativity kits which they carry with them.

Your Sketchbook
Now sketchbooks are very personal things, some of us carry the trusty Moleskine, some of us love a Black hardbound book like a Daler-rowney, others like a spiral bound book and a few of us like to make our own. Whatever takes your fancy you local art shop has a large range!
Of course if the Blank page is too intimidating then feel free to find an unloved paperback, phone book or magazine and graffiti it's pages with your impressions of the day.

Your Pen(cil)
From Sharpies to fountain pens your tool of choice is as individual as you are. need to loosen up? grab the chunkiest marker you can find or cut your pencil into a chisel for a wonderfully thick and thin contrast. (check out Asnee on flickr for wonderful examples)

For a line I like the the staedler pigment liner for it's waterproofness and the fact that it comes in an ultra thin 0.05.

Why do I need waterproof? well that brings me to...

Paints
An entirely optiononal extra is adding colour to your art, I have tins of solid paints, some created from tins collected from that tin guy at st kilda and filled with half pans of goauche and water colour, others repurposed lolly tins and toy painting kits and teamed with a pentel waterbrush make for a wonderful travel kit of colour.

Another way to add colour is with watercolour pencils or even watersoluble crayons; like caran d'ache neocolors.

Essentials
Of course there are some essentials for a day outside, sunscreen and a hat are pretty much up there with a pen and paper for a sketchcrawl. if melbourne turns out a day like last saturday it would be awful to be a lobster by 3pm.

Bottled water is also a handy thing, keep yourself hyrdated, remember you are responsible for your self, no one is going to mother you and tell you to put suncreen on and drink more water on the day, we'll all be too busy drawing!

Optionals

A sketching or camping stool (soemthing you will want to carry around all day)
Camera (unless youa re a photographer and then, well let's not pretend we have to tell you)

My advice
Carry only things you will be happy to carry all day. I'm an "everything including the kitchen sink kind of girl" but I'll put together my kit in the next few days and show you just how little I will be bringing! I spent saturday sketching at the children's farm in collingwood and I can tell you standing surrounded by people encourages you to be minimalist in your approach to tools.

best of luck!
See you all on the 25th!
janice

One month to go!

Well we are just one month out from the big day - the murmers of response are starting to solidify and word is spreading throughout the appropriate communities.

I thought it was time to give people somewhere to sign up so i have created an event on facebook
If you use facebook join in and rsvp - if you don't feel free to let us know you are coming by leaving a comment below!

Facebook event - http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=28823697662

Inspiration

If you are looking for inspiration check out Mike Utzon Popov's Exhibition at Australian Gallery's Works on paper gallery
His large scale drawings are segmented and an inspiration to anyone looking to see the world around them in a slightly different way.

Promote the crawl!

Check out the excellent Flyer Adrian Created for us!
Download it - print it out! and share it among all your friends!
pin it to your workplaces/local art shops/coffee dealers noticeboard and encourage everyone to join us!.
The more people, the more styles, the more sketchbooks to ogle and admire!

The Meeting place is set!

We would love to see you all at 10am on the front lawn at the State Library of Victoria! (328 Swanston st, between little lonsdale and lonsdale streets)

We have a proposed itinerary that is currently subject to change but goes a little like this -
Meet outside the State Library at 10am

Vic Market/Lunch

Little Bourke St
Degraves St

South Bank (there's this floating board walk beside the yarra which Adrian thinks would be pretty fun to draw on top of)

Alexandra Gardens

Fed Square/Coffee

Then if we are all not exhausted maybe on to chinatown for an early dinner!

We'd love to hear your comments/additions/suggestions so post away in the comments section!

Janice

What is Sketchcrawl?

Well Once upon a time a man named Enrico went to a buck's party, this bucks party was a pub crawl , they were to visit 10 public houses, they only made it to seven. But that is a story for another time.

Inspired by the crawl aspect of this party Enrico set out one day on what he termed a Sketchcrawl. He took the time to draw the things he saw on his journey. He drew his coffee cup, he drew the people he saw, the busses he took and the general world around him. After this long day he decided this would be more fun with friends, and Sketch Crawl international was born.

Our Melbourne chapter of this movement was created to inspire people to join us on the 20th international sketchcrawl October 25th 2008.

We hope you will join us and look forward to sketching with you!